The Bolts are Starting Something
August/04/2012 07:37 AM
THE BOLTS
August 4, 2012
@LOARS_Music
INTERVIEW ★ Bands to Watch ★ THE BOLTS ★ Heath Farmer
If you haven’t heard of The Bolts yet, you will…Meet The Bolts: These five guys out of Orange County, California are bringing their musical talent and passion to the stage grabbing new fans with every show.
Addam Farmer, Bass, Vocals Matt Champagne, Drums Austin Farmer, Keyboards, Vocals Ryan Kilpatrick, Guitar, Vocals Heath Farmer, Guitar, Vocals
This modern rock band has played The Roxy in Hollywood, The Grove in Los Angeles, The Viper Room in Los Angeles, are a recurring act at the Disneyland Residency in Anaheim and are set to play the upcoming Sunset Strip Music Festival on August 18, 2012.
In their own words:
Heath Farmer, Guitars and Vocals: “In Orange County where we were born and raised, it’s got a metal scene, it’s got a punk scene and it’s got a real hipster scene. We don’t fall into any of those and yet we seem to be starting some kind of movement.”
Managed and produced by Guy Eckstine, this band is going to explode. Says Eckstine, “I couldn’t really believe it when I saw four different, you know, people in the band stepping up and doing lead vocals. I was very very impressed and wanted to produce them and wanted to manage them immediately.”
We ASKED and Heath Farmer ANSWERED:
LOARS: 3 brothers! Wow! What special happened in your household to produce such talent?
“Thank you! We grew up around music-our extended family is full of entertainers, many being musicians and songwriters, and our parents have always encouraged us to excel at anything we put our hearts to. After our parents got us our first electric guitar, it quickly became evident that music was something we all wanted to put our hearts into.”
LOARS: Where does the sibling rivalry end and the band camaraderie begin?
“Now that we're all technically adults, we're much more mature and professional with the way we interact. We definitely don't agree on everything creative and logistical, but that can be said with any band. We gotta be grateful for our differences or else we wouldn't be able to learn from each other and grow.”
LOARS: Would it be easier to keep The Bolts all in the family? Was it a difficult decision to bring in an outsider?
“Ryan and Matt are family to us. Ryan's family and my family have been super close since we were in preschool so we, along with our other core group of friends, all consider ourselves family; we've been through a lot of good times and hard times, and that's what makes us family. We've had the privilege of getting to know Matt's family as we've started this band and consider them a part of our family too. We've been introduced to a lot of Filipino traditions at some of Matt's family parties and we love it!”
LOARS: With four vocalists in the group is there a competition for who takes the lead?
“Not really because during the songwriting process, we are songwriters and arrangers first, performers second. So if we feel someone's voice fits a certain part better, or a whole song better, we have that vocalist perform on the vocals. No animosity for anything, because we feel more importantly about the song than we do about egos. It's just like when the DJs whose songs you hear on the radio have the right singer take on the vocals because it feels like it works, but our singers also just so happen to be the band members. However, we try to make sure that we still have a 'recognizable voice' in our songs, and so we do that by doing our four part harmonies at the chorus, where we all blend our voices together.”
LOARS: The Beach Boys are such an entirely different genre and generation of music of all the groups you reference as influential. How have they specifically influenced your sound?
“I heard 'Good Vibrations' for years growing up, but my freshmen year of high school was the first time when I actually sat down to listen to it. My whole music world was flipped upside down. I had no idea music like that was out there. That's when I thought, my God, if my generation hasn't heard music like this, then I'm gonna make sure they do. So we try to incorporate the element to our vocals, mainly. During that same year, bands like The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie were making strides on the charts, and I was impacted by that. That's all the music we love as a band. It made sense to start a band that combined all the elements of music that we loved. Since our inception, new artists have influenced our sound as well, such as Foster the People, Fun., and more.”
LOARS: Do each of you have a favorite band right now--other than your own
-- something that is on your iPod that always makes it to the top of your playlist?“I’m really into Wolf Gang right now, Ryan is into Imagine Dragons, Matt digs Walk the Moon, Addam likes The Drums, and Austin listens to the new Gotye record.”
LOARS: How did you choose the name for the band?
“It was kind of a thing where we had a couple different names we liked, and after doing a web search, The Bolts wasn't taken. We liked it because it's short and sweet. Plus, we wanted to be a the 'somethings' band so people could look at us as a team.”
LOARS: Did you get to meet Kate Upton with your song being featured in the SoBe commercial?
“No, but we hope she likes the song! There's also another new Kate Upton video coming out with another one of our songs called 'This Can't Be Real', which will be featured on our 'Fall' ep.”
LOARS: That being asked, do any of you have a celebrity dream crush?
“Matt and Austin have made pretty known that they will battle it out for Demi Lovato.”
The Bolts - Walk Away (Official Music Video)
Produced by Guy Eckstine Recorded and Mixed by Dave Trumfio at Kingsize Soundlabs, Hollywood, CA Assistant Engineer & Pro Tools Operator- Celso Strada Management- Guy Eckstine/Iconique Music Group
http://www.facebook.com/thebolts
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The Bolts recently tweeted:
The Bolts @thebolts
The @SSMF set times are out! We play at 1PM on 8/18. Who's coming? http://bit.ly/ssmf818 #987stage
For more information about the Sunset Strip Music Festival:
SunsetStripMusicFest
@SSMF
AUGUST 16-18, 2012 Tickets -- http://bit.ly/ssmf2012http://facebook.com/sunsetstripmusicfestival Instagram: SSMF
The Sunset Strip · http://www.ssmf.com
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